Replacement Thunderbolt on its way! 5 days for #1

Replacement Thunderbolt on its way! 5 days for #1

Was the 3rd person in line Thursday morning and got my Thunderbolt and love it! HOWEVER, noticed a couple of times after plugging in that phone wasn't charged and turns out the micro-usb port is busted. Verizon rep at store said they had no replacements and to "keep checking back" but got great help from *611 and a new phone is on its way.

Weird thing though, when I plug the phone in to my car charger or a blackberry micro-usb charger, the phone goes completely black (almost like it shorts out)! I have to unplug and reboot the phone to get the screen back on. One instance, i wiggled the charger and was brought to a "boot-loader" type screen, but have been unable to recreate.

As stated in the blackberry charger works with Bolt thread, be careful when using those chargers. Although it is a micro usb it wasn't made for the Bolt. Previous Android users who've tried BB chargers have fried their phone. Not all, not many, but some. So be careful.

#2 on it's way

I have a new one being shipped from California for me. Mine had several dead pixels. I tried the pixel repair apps to no avail. I wasn't gonna worry about it but for $250, I will. BTW, I love the phone!

I have an old BB Storm1 charger and have been using it at work I haven't had any issues. I just assumed a micro usb is a micro usb. What if I use the usb cable from my storm to charge my TB through my pc. I don't want to fry my phone I should just carry the charger that came with my TB back and forth to work. Just sucks though cuz I have the worst memory most likely I will forget it at work.

As stated in the blackberry charger works with Bolt thread, be careful when using those chargers. Although it is a micro usb it wasn't made for the Bolt. Previous Android users who've tried BB chargers have fried their phone. Not all, not many, but some. So be careful.

Oh dear, I don't like to hear this. I haven't even figured out how to do a backup yet! I asked the clerk when I got my phone if my BB charger would work for it and she told me yes! If it fries my phone I'm going to be REAL upset! Chargers were all supposed to have gone universal not all that long ago is what I'd heard/read.

Deb
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I have my Blackberry Storm charger which works fine with the TB. No problem.

What does not work is the micro USB from a bluetooth headset. It WILL fry your phone.

I had a nice Plantronics headset which had a micro USB to charger and I inadvertently plugged my old Storm into it. It came back with a strange icon in the notification area and did not charge. I unplugged it and tried it again, same odd reaction. I was on travel and had grabbed just any old micro USB thinking they were all the same, and I ended up having to buy one on the fly so my phone wouldn't end up dead. In the Verizon store they said had I not noticed the odd reaction of my phone, it would have been fried.

People were breaking the micro's on the Evo's because they were forcing the plug in instead of taking their time with it and it would break. HTC redesigned it on the later versions and it hasn't been a problem. The Bolt has the same one as the latter version of Evo, so if people are breaking those, well, I don't know how they can really fix it.

People were breaking the micro's on the Evo's because they were forcing the plug in instead of taking their time with it and it would break. HTC redesigned it on the later versions and it hasn't been a problem. The Bolt has the same one as the latter version of Evo, so if people are breaking those, well, I don't know how they can really fix it.

Its a pain in the A$$ to plug in the charger that came with the phone...The car charger is alot easier to plug in!

So just to be clear, what is it exactly about BB chargers that might fry the phone? Are we talking more volts then our phone can handle, the amps, or maybe the pin outs are arranged differently then what standard androids use?

So just to be clear, what is it exactly about BB chargers that might fry the phone? Are we talking more volts then our phone can handle, the amps, or maybe the pin outs are arranged differently then what standard androids use?

The phone is rated to pull up to 1A. Even if a charger is rated at 2A, the phone will still only draw 1A. So, being rated higher is not an issue.

Blackberry car chargers are typically rated ~750mAh. Obviously this is less than the 1A the TB is able to pull. This is also not a problem. The TB will ingest whatever it can get, without any issues.

The TB will only pull 500mAh from a USB car charger - regardless of whether the output rating of the charger is rated higher than that or not. Because of the way USB car chargers are wired (internally), the TB will see the USB charger as a USB host. It will assume it is plugged into a computer and will not suck anymore than 500mAh in order to prevent damaging the host. In this case it is working as it should. You could crack that charger open and solder a few pins together to circumvent this, but it's probably not worth the effort.

Car chargers are different. Most (if not all) car chargers that Verizon sells are rated at 750mAh out. If you walk into a Verizon store and ask for a car charger -- for your BB -- they are going to sell you the exact same car charger they would sell you for your TB. The one they sell with the USB port on it? That 750mAh is shared by both the cord and the port if you are using both at the same time.

Here's where people run into problems:

If you're in the car using Nav, with the backlight on, and perhaps doing a voice call, or even streaming media, you could potentially be using power at a rate faster than a USB car charger (500mAh) or the Verizon car charger (750mAh) can feed the battery. Since the TB can pull 1A, I would recommend getting this one that I've used with my Incredible, EVO, Droid X, Fascinate, and now the TB. Feed the phone with all the power it will take. It will not take more than it can, and this is all handled by circuitry.

As far as voltage goes, the TB battery is rated at 3.7 volts, so you need a voltage that is 4.5 to 5.5 volts to generate enough voltage potential to charge the battery. The TB has a voltage regulator to regulate the voltage to the required charging voltage. That said, if a charger went to far over that number, it could actually fry the regulator.

In my experience, it's not the chargers that Verizon sells that cause issues. It's usually the cheap aftermarket chargers that you buy on eBay or other non reputable manufactures that cause issues. I remember back with the EVO, it actually went nuts if you plugged it into certain chargers.

Historically, every forum has a history of threads where some people report that their BB charger works fine, and other say things like this. I could post about 55 other threads just like that if you want

With BB chargers specifically, it seems to be about a 50/50 split on whether they work or not.

The next step is finding a quality cable, for the wall charger, they including with the TB. The cable that came with it is too short.

There is an HTC branded car charger i was thinking of getting that advertizes dual USB ports for charging 2 devices. it says it has total output of 2 full amps, or 1amp per socket. does this mean that since it is a USB socket the tbolt will only draw<500mA? I want a dual car charger that provides 1000mA each...

...
Car chargers are different. Most (if not all) car chargers that Verizon sells are rated at 750mAh out. ... The one they sell with the USB port on it? That 750mAh is shared by both the cord and the port if you are using both at the same time.
...
Since the TB can pull 1A, I would recommend getting this one that I've used with my Incredible, EVO, Droid X, Fascinate, and now the TB. Feed the phone with all the power it will take. It will not take more than it can, and this is all handled by circuitry.
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Now he tells me!

Well, I picked up the Verizon Car Charger with the additional USB output socket at the Verizon store.
So, I suppose that I'm getting 750mAh, since the cord attached to the charger is not plugged into a USB socket. Haven't had any problems with it.

I have my Blackberry Storm charger which works fine with the TB. No problem.

What does not work is the micro USB from a bluetooth headset. It WILL fry your phone.

I had a nice Plantronics headset which had a micro USB to charger and I inadvertently plugged my old Storm into it. It came back with a strange icon in the notification area and did not charge. I unplugged it and tried it again, same odd reaction. I was on travel and had grabbed just any old micro USB thinking they were all the same, and I ended up having to buy one on the fly so my phone wouldn't end up dead. In the Verizon store they said had I not noticed the odd reaction of my phone, it would have been fried.

Hmm.... Thats odd I been using my plantronics bluetooth((Voyager Pro) charger on my Evo for at least 6-7 months. I have had no problems yet.

As stated in the blackberry charger works with Bolt thread, be careful when using those chargers. Although it is a micro usb it wasn't made for the Bolt. Previous Android users who've tried BB chargers have fried their phone. Not all, not many, but some. So be careful.

Sent from my "Fast Don't Lie" Thunderbolt 4G

I've been using the same BB charger from my Blackberry Storm on all my Droid phones I've owned (Incredible, Droid X and now Thunderbolt) and have never had a problem with it.

These micro USB wall chargers HAVE to follow specs in order to use the micro USB plug and logo's. They have to output the same voltage across the board and they cannot output anything over a specified current (I don't have the exact spec on it). This was done to force all phone manufacturers to use the same chargers so that consumers wouldn't have 600 chargers for each device... especially car chargers.

The only thing that will differentiate between all chargers is that one may charge your phone slower than the other if the current output is lower but it will never be higher then the USB sepcs.

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